Its Only A Game [Paperback]

Charles M. Schulz (Author), Jim Sasseville (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2004

In the late 1950s, amidst the surging popularity of Peanuts and during a strongly creative period, Charles M. Schulz created his only other syndicated newspaper comic. It's Only a Game focused on the fun and foibles of people and their pastimes: golf, bowling, bridge, fishing, and more. This bouncy material, full of Schulz's signature wit, has for decades been considered one of the lost treasures of the comics field. Now, almost half a century later, this material is collected into book form for the first time! Commentary and insight is provided by artist and cartoonist Jim Sasseville, who worked with Schulz on the feature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Between 1957 and 1959, Schulz created a single-panel sports-themed feature that ran three times a week or in a combined package on Sunday. He relied increasingly on Sasseville, who was writing and drawing the Peanuts comic book, to turn sketches and concepts into finished work. However, the fundamental style and attitude remains recognizably Schulz's. The same quality that made Peanuts a modern classic—Schulz's amused fascination with human pretensions and delusions—animates this minor newspaper cartoon. Unlike some contemporary sports cartoons, it focuses on amateur activities such as golf, bowling, Ping-Pong and even bridge. There's no cheering crowd, no huge prize to win. The people playing these games are at least nominally adults, though they look a lot like the Peanuts crew and behave like them, too. If Charlie Brown and his friends worry like adults, Schulz understood how childishly grownups can behave when they hit a bad shot or make a grand slam. Such excessive emotion is nothing to be concerned about, though; that's just the way we are. Schulz clearly enjoyed reminding adults of how silly they can be, as on the cover, where a Little League player reminds a scowling adult umpire that he shouldn't take a game too seriously. If nothing else, this book answers the question of what a grown-up Charlie Brown would have looked like.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: About Comics (December 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971633894
• ISBN-13: 978-0971633896
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,363,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good To See Another of Sparky's Works, December 21, 2004

By 

K. Palmer (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Its Only A Game (Paperback)

In late 1957, as he was beginning to see the success that his strip "Peanuts" was generating, Charles Schulz began another strip called "It's Only A Game", which was a strip geared for adults with primarily adult characters. The strip ran for a little over a year in just a handful of newspapers (around 30, if I recall correctly). Unlike his "Peanuts" work where he did not enlist the help of others, he did employ a friend of his from Minnesota named Jim Sasseville to collaborate on this new strip. Sasseville provides comments throughout this fairly small book about his experiences with Schulz and I think that you are left with the impression that Schulz quickly lost interest in the concept of "It's Only A Game" as he appeared to turn over most of the drawing and inking duties to Sasseville, with Schulz's major contribution being the strip ideas (with crude sketches). Sasseville even seems to imply that he came up with some of the strip ideas as well (but always got Schulz' approval before submission).

The strips are a little more detailed than those from Peanuts. The topics focus a lot on sports like bowling with the biggest focus on the card game Bridge (in fact, the word "Bridge" is placed in the corner of each of these particular strips to let the reader know what the heck the characters were talking about). I have never played Bridge, so the lingo goes over my head.

I'm glad that the Schulz estate is allowing the release of these non-Peanuts related projects because it lets us see another side of Charles Schulz' creativity. But "It's Only A Game" is not a remarkable collection as was the "Lil' Folks" collection that was released about a year ago, but it's fun to see nonetheless.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A different corner of Sparky's mind, September 16, 2005

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Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Its Only A Game (Paperback)

Between November, 1957 and January, 1959, "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz drew -- first by himself and later with collaborator Jim Sasseville -- a one-panel, sports-themed comic strip. For Schulz fans who, whetted by the Fantagraphics "Complete Peanuts" series, are inspired to find and read most everything Schulz ever drew, this little book makes an interesting addition to get hold of.

However, its interest -- to me as I suppose for most readers -- has far more to do with the creator than with the creation. These one-panel strips just aren't as interesting as "Peanuts." There are no recurring characters, no storyline, and no particular topic apart from the sports themes themselves. Of course, just as in "Peanuts," there's an underlying sense of people beset by the human condition, and a few sighs, wails, and cries of despair that will be familiar to any "Peanuts" fan.

What made this collection most interesting to me was to imagine it as a peek into what the "Peanuts" characters would have been like had they ever grown up. And in fact, in the commentary that is interspersed with the art, Sasseville writes that "it's not accidental that some of the adults look like grown-up Peanuts kids. It was harder to emulate Sparky's adults than the kids." And so it's easy to see a middle-aged Charlie Brown seated at a table, looking at a deck of cards and saying (as a young Charlie Brown might have said on his pitcher's mound) "How can a good player like me lose all the time?" (p. 15) or, before his collection of little-bitty trophies, "Oh, I've won my share of tournaments all right, but I'm afraid none of them was very important" (p. 22). The chess-playing grandpa on page 45, however, has to be Linus. There's no other explanation.

This collection has its laughs, but it doesn't have the magic of "Peanuts." It is interesting to see the familiar lettering and drawing style applied to unfamiliar art, and even more interesting to see this corner of Sparky's mind. But I can understand why Schulz tired of "It's Only a Game" -- and more to the point, I can be thankful for the energy and creativity that were invested back into "Peanuts."

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for adults and older kis about all sports., February 24, 2006

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C. Foley "SnoopyRulz" (South Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Its Only A Game (Paperback)

This books encompasses all sports. It is notyour normal Charles Shlutlz book. It makes light of all sports in a adult way and is funny and very enjoyable.